The article discusses in detail the theology of culture by S.N. Bulgakov. Due to the dominance of the concept of sophiology in the work of the philosopher and theologian, this discussion should speak about the sophiology of culture. Bulgakov’s sophiology was genetically connected with the understanding of Sophia by V.S. Solovyov, who, in turn, was inspired by Western European mysticism, the Russian iconographic tradition of venerating Sophia the Wisdom of God, as well as the concept of the Great Being in sociology by O. Comte. Bulgakov considered the interpretation of economy from the perspective of the sophiological doctrine in his book “Philosophy of Economy” («Filosofiya hozyajstva»). The article shows how the philosopher divides the sophian activity of mankind into “gray magic” (economy and science), and “white magic” (art). The author points to the importance of Bulgakov’s criticism of art, art is interpreted by the philosopher as the “Old Testament of Beauty”, as only Sophia’s striving for eternal life. The importance of Bulgakov’s distinction between sophiurgy and theurgy is emphasized. Sophia’s activity is associated with the vision of the ideal and human creativity. Theurgy is an undivided synergetic action of man and divine grace, realized in prayer and historical act, priest or saint. The author of the article emphasizes Bulgakov’s traditional theme of human activity in history, both in his early fascination with Marx, in his interest in N.F. Fedorov’s concept of the “resurrection of the fathers”, and in sophiological eschatology. This, in particular, is connected with Bulgakov’s persistent motif of criticism of false humility, sometimes encountered in Christian culture, the quietist rejection of the world and “nihilistic asceticism”.

Keywords: theology of culture, sophiology, gray magic of science, white magic of art, sophiurgy and theurgy, true and false asceticism, theology.

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Katasonov V.N. Sophiology of Culture by S.N. Bulgakov. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 5–19. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp037

The article is devoted to studying the theology of the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as well as the search for the basis for it in the Tanakh. Special attention is paid to the analysis of its provisions on the necessity of priesthood change and the attributes and qualities of the High Priest of the New Testament. Hermeneutic and comparative methods are used for this purpose. It is shown that the narration of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews about the need to change the covenant, priesthood, law and tabernacle finds its basis not only in the books of the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, but also, to a greater extent, in the Book of the prophet Isaiah. The basis for changing the covenant is the unfaithfulness of the people of Israel and their departure from the law. The basis for changing the priesthood is its unfaithfulness to God and the temporariness and imperfection of the Levitical service. The basis for changing the law is the inability of man to fulfill it without changing his essence, as well as changes in the prescription for the priesthood. The change of the tabernacle is associated with a change in the nature of the New Testament man, as well as with God’s plan for His creation. It is shown that all the attributes of Jesus Christ: His High Priesthood, Sonship, Messiahship, Apostleship, and divinity are reflected in the Tanakh and especially in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.

Keywords: Jesus Christ, High Priest, Messiah, Son of God, Apostle, covenant, priesthood, law, tabernacle, theology.

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Shumilin A.V. The Theology of Jesus Christ’s High Priesthood in the Epistle to the Hebrews: searching for biblical foundations in the Tanakh. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 20–33. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp038

The article is the second study devoted to the analysis of the issue of the relationship between «science-religion» («knowledge-faith») in the Armenian philosophical and theological thought of the Modern Age — the period of the powerful spiritual awakening of the Armenian nation or the Second Armenian Enlightenment, marked by the powerful rise of national self-awareness and the formation of a national ideology. In that context in the article is distinguished liberal (“enlightening”) and religious (“conservative”) currents, through the prism of which Armenian philosophical and theological thought of the 18th to the early 20th centuries is presented. The period, covering the 17th and the first half of the 18th centuries, is analyzed through the mechanism of incorporation of European worldview and ideological constructs in Armenian philosophical-theological tradition. As a result of the research conducted on the basis of primary sources and within the framework of the author’s methodological concept of the study of the history of the Armenian spiritual culture, it’s substantiated, that the Armenian philosophical and theological thought of the New Age, both in its liberal and religious versions, developed in the direction of one — national — project. It was based on the centuries-old Armenian national-cultural tradition as its feeding and fertilizing source, and the new European ideologemes served for it as a worldview and idiological context of the era. The subject of the research is to identify the direction of transformation of the interpretation of the issue in Armenian philosophical-theological thought of the Modern Age. The main conclusion of the article is the thesis that the Armenian philosophical-theological thought of the Modern Age reflected the main ideas’ constructs of the epoch, and, primarily, the European idea of social progress and its locomotive — enlightenment — in the context of Armenian philosophical-theological tradition, changed conditions of Armenian national existence and the priorities of the Armenian nation. For the European liberalism of the 18th-19th centuries, which developed in the conditions of a radical conflict with the church-political system of the old order, the opposition of «science-religion» («knowledge-faith»), «progress-tradition» was the most important component of its worldview system. In the Armenian spiritual-intellectual environment, the task of replacing religion with science was never set. Even the Armenian liberalism of the second half of the 19th-20th century had more a national-enlightenment, but not anti-religious and anti-clerical character.

Keywords: social progress, science-religion, knowledge-faith, enlightenment of the nation, absolute and relative truth, Armenian enlighteners, Armenian conservatives.

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Mirumyan R.A. To the question of the interrelation of «science-religion» («knowledge-faith») in the Armenian philosophical and theological tradition of the Modern Age. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 34–71. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp039

This article explores the constructive role of dialogical tension as a means of fostering deeper understanding, self-reflection, and interpretive engagement within the participant of the dialogue. It examines three foundational rabbinic texts — Bava Metzia 59a–b (the Oven of Akhnai), Bereshit Rabbah 8:5 (creation of humanity), and Kohelet Rabbah 7:18 (human limitation) — as articulations of an epistemological and anthropological model in which understanding of biblical text emerges not through the elimination of contradiction but through its sustained, dialogical engagement. Parallels are drawn with Socratic maieutics and patristic apophatic theology, revealing a shared structure across traditions. While maintaining the primacy of ancient sources, the study also indicates how this dialogical logic resonates, in a secondary and heuristic manner, with contemporary psychotherapeutic approaches that emphasise empathy, clarification, and the emergence of an authorial position through reflective dialogue. The study ultimately emphasises dialogue as a unique mode of human collaboration, possessing profound potential for both the inner and outer growth of human personhood, understanding, and relational development.

Keywords: maieutics, Socrates, midrash, apophatic theology, patristics, understanding psychotherapy, hermeneutics, anthropology, empathy, reflection, theology, psychotherapy.

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Narinskaya E. The Art of Formulating Questions about Humans: Rabbinic Dialectics and the use of Socratic Maieutics’ in Psychotherapy. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 72–94. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp040

This article presents a collection of letters from the editor of «The Eastern Churches Quarterly» to Archbishop Basil (Krivoshein) of Brussels and Belgium (1900–1985), who, at the time of the correspondence (the 1930s), was a monk at the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon on Mount Athos. In 1936, he published his first major scholarly study dedicated to the ascetic and theological teachings of St. Gregory Palamas. An English translation of this work appeared in four issues of «The Eastern Churches Quarterly» in 1938; it was the preparation of this translation that prompted Monk Basil to correspond with the journal’s editor, the Benedictine monk Father Dom Bede Winslow. In addition to him, Monk Basil corresponded with a number of other individuals who were either readers or authors of «The Eastern Churches Quarterly». Some of their letters are also included in the article. All the authors of the letters are Catholics, so this correspondence serves as a good example of the harmonious relationship between representatives of the two confessions — Catholic clergy and laity and an Orthodox monk from Mount Athos. At the same time, their communication did not exclude the possibility of discussion, which nevertheless took place in a restrained and respectful tone. Some letters demonstrate how scholarly activity becomes a space for dialogue, a tool for interconfessional communication that helps representatives of different denominations discover the richness of one another. Letters from the editor, readers, and authors of «The Eastern Churches Quarterly» to Archbishop Basil have been preserved in his personal collection in the archives of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos; their original text, with a few exceptions, is being published here for the first time.

Keywords: The Eastern Churches Quarterly, Vasily Krivoshein, Bede Winslow, interfaith dialogue, Hartog, Edward Bowron, Rumann, Athos, Orthodoxy, Christianity.

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Tihonov A.A. Some letters from the editor, readers and authors of the journal «The Eastern Churches Quarterly» to Archbishop Basil (Krivoshein). Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 95–113. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp041

This article examines the relationship between the Orthodox doctrine of deification and the transhumanist concept of human enhancement. Can the doctrine of deification and the transhumanist aspiration to improve the human being be meaningfully compared without collapsing one into the other? There are reasons why such a comparison invites itself: in contemporary philosophical, bioethical, and religious studies literature, one increasingly encounters the language of transformation, perfection, and the transcendence of human limitation. Yet verbal similarity, by itself, proves nothing. Beneath it lie different accounts of what, precisely, is disordered in the human person, what the goal of human existence is, and by what path that goal may be attained. This study therefore proceeds from a stronger claim: the divergence between Orthodox theosis and the transhumanist project of human enhancement concerns not merely secondary motifs or descriptive vocabulary, but the underlying anthropological and soteriological foundations of the two models. Similarity of terminology does not in itself indicate any deeper inner affinity between them. To test this claim, the study employs textual, comparative, contextual, and dogmatic-theological methods of analysis. It expounds the positive content of the Orthodox doctrine of deification, reconstructs the conceptual structure of transhumanist human enhancement, and offers a comparative analysis of two models of human perfection with reference to their goals, means, understanding of personhood, body, freedom, virtue, death, and immortality. The article’s originality lies in approaching the problem not primarily within the framework of applied bioethics, but as a question concerning two distinct models of salvation and human vocation. It argues that theosis signifies the gracious transformation of the human person in communion with God and in the horizon of resurrection, whereas transhumanist enhancement is oriented toward the technically managed overcoming of limitation. The article concludes that this project is not a secular continuation of deification, but a different construction of hope that stands in tension with the Orthodox understanding of salvation.

Keywords: theosis, deification, transhumanism, theology, Orthodox anthropology, personhood, body, freedom, virtue, resurrection, salvation, soteriology, ecclesiology, immortality.

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Popov A.P. Deification and Enhancement: The Fundamental Incompatibility between Orthodox Theosis and Transhumanist Human Enhancement. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 114–139. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp042

This article examines the infancy narrative of the Gospel of Matthew (Matt. 1–2) within the context of early Jewish-Christian controversy concerning the origin of Jesus. The study aims to demonstrate that Matthew 1–2 constitutes a coherent apologetic program aimed at addressing Jewish criticism, including suspicions of Mary’s adultery, as well as accusations concerning Jesus, namely his alleged illegitimacy, contested Jewish origin, ambiguity of geographical identification, and charges of Egyptian magic, and at providing a theological interpretation of the problem of the virgin birth. Methodologically, the study is grounded in historical-theological, narrative, and comparative-hermeneutical approaches, drawing on sources from Second Temple Judaism, rabbinic literature, patristic polemics, and contemporary biblical scholarship. The novelty of the research lies in a model-based interpretation of Matt. 1–2 as an integrated apologetic system structured on three interrelated levels: ethical, metaphysical, and geographical. At the level of ethical apologetics, it is demonstrated that the inclusion of Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba in the messianic genealogy typologically vindicates Mary and neutralises suspicions of her adultery and the illegitimacy of Jesus. At the level of metaphysical apologetics, the analysis focuses on the numerological structure of Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus (Matt. 1:1–17), the Septuagintal reading of Isa. 7:14, and the Enochic literature within Second Temple Judaism, the combined force of which provides a basis for affirming the legitimacy of the virginal conception within the framework of Jewish monotheism. At the level of geographical apologetics, the article analyses Matthew’s resolution of the tension between the Messiah’s Bethlehem origin and his identification as a Nazarene through a system of formula quotations and the narrative of geographical movements. The study concludes that Matthew’s infancy narrative constitutes a multilayered theological-apologetic construction in which potential arguments against Jesus’ messianic status are systematically transformed into evidence of his legitimacy as the Messiah of Israel.

Keywords: Gospel of Matthew, infancy narrative, Jesus’ messiahship, virginal conception, Jewish hermeneutics, Second Temple Judaism, geographical apologetics, Christology.

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Trupbergenov A.M. The Polemical Context of Matthew’s Infancy Narrative: Early Jewish-Christian Controversy and Theological Strategies of Response. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 140–160. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp043

The problem of the Christian attitude to the created world has received a new development in connection with the events that accompanied the 20th century (world wars, testing of nuclear and biological weapons), which forced us to take a fresh look at the issue of suffering not only of man, but of all creatures in the light of the ecological crisis and the criticism of anthropocentric interpretations of the biblical doctrine of creation. In this context, animal theology has emerged as one of the directions of Christian ecotheology, focused on the theological understanding of the status and rights of animals, their suffering and the permissible limits of human power over them. For Orthodox theology, this issue is of particular interest, since, on the one hand, the tradition retains a pronounced anthropological and soteriological orientation, and on the other hand, it has serious grounds for a broader vision of the creature as a participant in the universal glorification of the Creator. This allows us to go beyond the morphological description of an animal, and also to raise the question not only of criticizing the reduction of an animal to a "symbol" or "resource", but also of the possibility of understanding the animal world within the horizon of the so-called "cosmic liturgy".

Keywords: ecotheology, animal theology, A. Linzey, animals, cosmic liturgy, anthropocentrism, theology.

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Chentsov Y.D. Animal theology in the perspective of Orthodox Theology: on the question of the Status of animals in the Created World. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 161–171. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp044

This article presents a new approach to the study of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Narrative hermeneutics, as a method, allows us to see in the Epistle not only a set of key Christian doctrines but also a compelling narrative that enables the reader to better understand the author’s intentions. The proposed approach to studying the Epistle does not neglect the study of doctrines. On the contrary, it allows us to see them in close interrelation with one another. It has been revealed that the Epistle consists of five sections with a similar structure. It is possible that each of them represented a separate sermon or served as the basis for discipleship. A central theme has been identified that unfolds not only within the identified sections but throughout the entire Epistle: the greatness of the Son of God, His humiliation, and His subsequent exaltation; parallel to this is the greatness of the Church of God, her humiliation by Christ’s adversaries, and her subsequent glory. It is shown that Jesus is the Messiah promised by God, the Apostle, and the High Priest, and that only the Church has a future with Christ. Significant material has been identified that is largely familiar and understandable to readers and which brings the narrative to life. The main theme of the Epistle has been identified: faith in Christ, hope in Him, humility, patience, and steadfastness lead a person to God’s rest.

Keywords: Epistle to the Hebrews, God, Christ, Church, Son of God, Angels, Moses, Abraham, Aaron, High Priest, narrative hermeneutics, New Testament, Bible.

For citation
Shumilin A.V. The Role of Narrative Hermeneutics in Understanding the Epistle to the Hebrews. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 172–189. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp045

The article reconstructs the formation of the canonisation practice in the Old Believer community in 1905–1917, drawing on archival materials and publications in Old Believer periodicals. Particular attention is paid to the activities of the Consecrated Councils, All‑Russian Congresses of Old Believers, and brotherhoods, which initiated the collection of information about ascetics, the compilation of their lives and liturgical services, and the development of council resolutions. The core of the analysis focuses on the canonisation of Patriarch Hermogenes (1916) and a group of martyrs who suffered for the “ancient piety” (1917), as well as the institutional formalisation of the veneration of St Anna of Kashin, including the establishment of feast days and the regulation of liturgical commemoration. Several problematic cases are examined separately: attempts to transfer the remains of Metropolitan Ambrose from Trieste to Belaya Krinitsa, petitions for the transfer of the relics of Bishop Alimpiy of Tulchin, and the resolution of canonical doubts regarding prayerful interaction with the Nikonians. The study demonstrates how, under the influence of the expansion of civil liberties after 1905, Old Believer structures consistently developed a multi‑level canonisation procedure — from local initiatives and the gathering of testimonies to conciliar approval and the unification of liturgical practice. The key factors that shaped the dynamics of the canonisation process are identified: internal church regulation, administrative constraints, and the confessional self‑identification of the Old Believers. The materials presented in the article are significant for the study of the history of the Old Believer Church, the evolution of its institutional mechanisms, and its theological and canonical approaches to the glorification of saints.

Keywords: Old Believers, church administration, the Consecrated Council, canonisation.

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Sviridonova A.I. The Issues of Canonisation at the Consecrated Councils of the Old Believer Church (1905–1917): Normative Argumentation and Practice. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 190–213. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp046